28 August 2003
Employees at locally based Zurich Risk Services have raised £15,000 for St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester. The money will be used to help pay the travel costs for the hospice’s professional nurses in the Worcestershire area to enable them to continue offering their vital home care service.
Last year St Richard’s cared for over 1100 patients and their families and one of the main aims of the hospice is to enable patients to stay at home where possible by providing care alongside the patients’ own doctors and nurses with back up from the Day Hospice.
And this is only the beginning. Zurich Risk Services has chosen hospices as their fundraising theme for the year.
Zurich Risk Services Regional Service Manager, Winston Dudley-Brown commented, "We’re hoping to raise a lot for hospices throughout the UK over the next year. Zurich Risk Services has more than 600 employees based throughout the country, as fieldworkers in the area of health and safety. For this reason, we felt it was a good idea to choose a theme rather than one specific charity. This way all our people can get involved in the fundraising, to help their local hospice."
This donation is the launch of the theme. Zurich Risk Services' charity team will gather at the hospice on 28 August, along with Zurich Risk Services Managing Director, Roger Cottell, Henri Ginvert from Zurich Community Affairs, Liz Wiles from Help the Hospices and also Marilyn Peachey, Director of Fundraising from St Richards.
There is a photo opportunity on the day as the team will meet nurses during lunch and then go on to paint St. Richards portacabins in the afternoon. For more information please call Marilyn Peachey on 01905 763963.
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For further information contact:
Natasha Stonebridge
Zurich Risk Services
Tel: 0121 456 1311
Susannah Jeffery
Zurich Financial Services
Tel: 01489 561559
Notes to Editors:
The Hospice movement
Every year, Hospice Care touches the lives of millions of people throughout the UK.
The UK’s 200 local adult and children’s hospices provide care completely free of charge, but as local charities in there own right, they must raise over £300 million every year. This makes local hospices the biggest fundraising cause in the UK. Hospices have a shift in focus from curing to caring – celebrating life by adding quality of life for patients, time with their families in their own homes and through day-hospice facilities.
Zurich seeks to be a responsible corporate citizen and considers it an important part of successful business performance. Community remains high on its agenda. Zurich has a strong track record of supporting local communities with funding, time and expertise and has received recognition for its groundbreaking work from Business In the Community, Whitbread and the Insurance Times.
The Zurich Community Trust, a registered charity funded by pre-tax profits and donations from its people, provides an umbrella for all community involvement in the UK.
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Zurich Cares Trust Programmes create sustainable change through long-term funding and active involvement. Zurich works closely with innovative partners to significantly impact the lives of disadvantaged people in the UK and overseas. The Programmes tackle social exclusion, dementia and the most vulnerable older people’s issues.
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Zurich Cares manages and matches Zurich employees' and financial advisers' £1 million donations, 22,000 hours of volunteering including more than 200 annual challenge activities.
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Zurich Risk Services (http://www.zurich.co.uk/RiskServices/)part of the Zurich Financial Services Group, is a leading provider of risk management solutions. It enables its customers to operate a safer, more effective workplace, and ultimately reduce the total cost of risk.
Its technical and operational risk management products and services sit in family groups; they include safety inspections, health & safety, property, motor fleet, business continuity, liability, and training. Zurich Risk Services combines expertise with experience with 80 years in the safety inspection industry and 25 years of risk management.
Zurich Risk Services main office is in Birmingham and there are five customer risk centres located nationally; Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Sutton, and Leeds. It employs over 870 people, of which there are 615 field workers; comprising of safety inspection and risk management specialists.
Zurich Financial Services is an insurance-based financial services provider with an international network that focuses its activities on its key markets of North America, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Founded in 1872, Zurich is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. It has offices in more than 50 countries and employs about 64,000 people.
